Oregon Speech-Language & Hearing Association

The goal of speech therapy is to help your child communicate effectively with other people across all environments. This may take the form of using gestures, simple signs, verbal speech, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

Some other common things speech therapists can help with:

• Nonverbal skills, such as signs or gestures
• Forming speech in a clearer way
• Communicating thoughts and feelings clearly
• Understanding and responding to questions
• Discerning facial expressions and their corresponding emotions
• Noticing and understanding body language
• Feeding and swallowing
• Stuttering

There isn’t one set way that an IEP meeting is run, but generally it involves everyone on the IEP team reviewing your child’s goals, progress, and sharing ideas and suggestions on what supports or accommodations may be helpful to accomplish those goals.

It’s required that the school staff go over every section of the IEP with you and explain every part. This is only a draft, because the IEP may change based on what’s discussed in the meeting. You do not have to sign or agree to the IEP at the IEP meeting. If you don’t like the IEP, you may not have to agree to it at all.